This Accursed Year

by Dr. David Sanders

Inside the walled city of Gerona, Spain in the 13^th century, Abraham Cantor penned a hopeful prayer which has been added to the Sephardic Rosh Hashanah liturgy since its composition. It is a short song of only nine stanzas and is known by its title “Little Sister.” Its message is repeated in the refrain: “Let this (past) year and its curses come to an end.”

There is little doubt that Abraham Cantor wrote this song as a response to whatever trauma or tragedy had happened in the town of Gerona or its vicinity. It might have been a plague, pestilence or pogrom, or perhaps it was a more personal calamity his family suffered. I can imagine his tremulous voice introducing the song as he asked the congregation to join in and sing in unison “let these curses come to an end.”

What is astounding is not that this prayer is still recited almost 700 years later. The obvious question that arises concerns the authenticity of our reciting the prayer in years when it is evident that the curses of the past are still present, haunting us despite our fervent wish that they end.

How then can we possibly relate to this hopeful prayer knowing full well that the crisis has not ended, the wounds have not closed, and the curse continues unabated? This question is compounded now because of the realization that as this New Year approaches, as the anniversary of October 7 looms closer and closer, time is running out. Time itself feels like a curse.

As Rosh Hashanah’s purpose is a time for reflection, we can listen to this prayer as a call to focus inward and honestly examine the cursed demons which are our own, the recognition of our part in the creation of a cursed existence. I was moved by the work of Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon to acknowledge the demons within (A Palestinian and an Israeli, face to face) and attempt to get beyond the cursing, the vengeance.

I have written before and reiterate now that it is not enough to do the incredibly difficult inner work these two men model around empathizing with their brother’s deep emotional pain of loss and grief. It is essential that the narratives to be examined are the beliefs about who we curse and who we bless. Who we think is accursed and he we see as blessed. Only then can the outside reality fully reflect the inner work we have done, the commitments we have made, so we can sing with authenticity, “Let the curses of this past year come to an end.”

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